"Landmark US-UK Data Access Agreement Begins"

A first-of-its-kind agreement between the US and UK governments came into force this week, promising to streamline digital investigations for British law enforcers.  The Data Access Agreement technically allows each country’s investigators to benefit from faster access to data stored by service providers in the other country.  In practice, it will mainly help UK cops requesting information from US social media and other companies.  It was noted that because of local legal restrictions on US providers sharing their data with foreign governments, investigators were previously forced to lodge requests via Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs), which was a slow, painful, and error-prone process.  According to law firm Cooley, the Data Access Agreement will speed things up considerably, forcing cloud storage companies, social media providers, messaging platforms, and other digital service providers to reply to overseas production orders (OPOs) within seven days.  Failure to do so could render them in contempt of court.  In a joint statement made by Washington and London, it was stated that the Data Access Agreement will allow information and evidence that is held by service providers within each of the nations and relates to the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of serious crime to be accessed more quickly than ever before.  It was noted that this will help, for example, law enforcement agencies gain more effective access to the evidence they need to bring offenders to justice, including terrorists and child abuse offenders, thereby preventing further victimization.

Infosecurity reports: "Landmark US-UK Data Access Agreement Begins"